Full Life Enrollment: A How-To Guide

 

Hello friends! This is Rob, Full Life’s Director of Day Services, signing in this week to chat about enrollment. We receive a lot of e-mails and phone calls asking about the application process for enrollment in our day programs and employment supports. I hope this serves as a basic introduction for anyone out there interested in understanding the process.

Full Life offers dynamic day programs for adults with developmental disabilities, as well as employment support services such as Discovery and Job Development. Our day programs feature a wide variety of activities that promote independence, encourage self-esteem, and help our participants achieve their dreams and goals. If you (or the individual you are interested in enrolling) have a developmental disability and currently have a Service Coordinator or a Personal Agent from a Community Developmental Disabilities Program or a Support Services Brokerage, please feel free to ask your Service Coordinator or Personal Agent reach out to Full Life with a referral packet via e-mail. Referral packets can be e-mailed directly to robgray@fulllife.com. If you do not currently have a Service Coordinator or Personal Agent but are interested in receiving services from Full Life for yourself or someone else in your life, here is a quick guide to getting things moving in the right direction. This information has been gathered largely from Multnomah County Department of County Human Services.

 

What are Developmental Disabilities?

Full Life serves adults with Developmental Disabilities. A Developmental Disability is a severe mental or physical impairment (or combination thereof), which begins before an individual is 22 years old. A developmental disability directly affects the brain and causes significant impairment of daily living skills such as, but not limited to, communicating, grooming, dressing, safety and social skills. Developmental disabilities include Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down syndrome, or other neurological disabling conditions.

See the full definition of Developmental Disability in OAR 411-320-0020.

 

Am I Eligible?

Your county Community Developmental Disability Program (CDDP) decides eligibility. The worker in your county will help with the necessary papers you need and help you through the eligibility process. For more info, visit the Multnomah County IDD Eligibility page.

 

Supports for individuals with an Intellectual and/or Developmental Disability:

The Office of Developmental Disability Services (ODDS) offers services to adults ranging from supports to assist an individual to live in their own home or with family or friends, to 24-hour comprehensive services. Services offered have specific eligibility standards and are accessed through the local Community Developmental Disabilities Program (CDDP) .

An Individual Support Plan is established with each adult to identify supports provided based upon their health and safety needs, interests, choices and goals. Each plan is uses a person-centered planning process. When an individual is enrolled at Full Life, one of our administrators becomes a member of the individuals’ ISP team and attends their yearly ISP meetings. Our services, supports and goals are written into each individual’s support plan.

 

What is Service Coordination?

Service coordination support is provided to any adult with developmental disabilities not enrolled in any other funded service. Adults can choose to have this support from a Community Developmental Disabilities Program or a Support Services Brokerage. County Services Coordinators (SC) or Brokerage Personal Agents (PA) meet at least annually with each person and their ISP team to review their current situation, identify needs, and make referrals for essential services. The services that Full Life offers are coordinated by the individuals SC or PA.

 

OK, so you are eligible and you have a Service Coordinator or Personal Agent. How do you apply for Full Life?

Talk to your Service Coordinator or Personal Agent about Full Life. If your ISP team thinks we might be a good fit, ask your Service Coordinator or Persona Agent to send us a referral packet with the individual’s most up-to-date support information. We will review the referral packet to determine whether we are going to be able to meet the individual’s support needs. If we feel that it might be a good fit, we will contact your ISP team to schedule a tour of Full Life. If the individual, their team, and Full Life are in agreement that we are a good fit, we will schedule an entry meeting!

 

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at robgray@fulllife.com.